The beauty of a used tea bowl Japanese contemporary ceramics scene is one of the liveliest and most diverse in the world In the pottery, the Japanese maintain a unique form of aesthetic communication. Today's ceramic scene is by no means the result of an unbroken tradition, but the result of revival and reinvention.
Philipp Meier
who has already come to enjoy Japanese cuisine, is aware of the beauty of the food packages. Not only are the bite-sized cut Esswaren piled in a refined manner, stacked, and too small, artfully coordinated structures gebüschelt. They are served in countless bowls, plates, bowls and plates, in materiality, shape, texture and color of astonishing diversity. In contrast to Western dining culture is known in Japan, no single service utensils. The dinner in a traditional accommodation (ryokan) is served up to thirty or more different vessels. Many are also used for dishes materials: stoneware and porcelain to join, depending on the season, lacquer ware, bamboo and glass. The main role of ceramics, however, play different surfaces.
Urjapanische discipline The ceramic tradition Japans zählt heute zu den lebendigsten der Welt. Auch gehört sie mit ihren Ursprüngen in der Frühgeschichte, also vor rund 12 000 Jahren, zu den ältesten überhaupt. Oft gilt Japan daher als Paradies der Töpferkunst schlechthin. Die riesige Vielfalt der Erzeugnisse reicht vom feinen farbigen Porzellan aus Arita bis zur schrundig-archaischen Shigaraki-Keramik aus unglasiertem Steinzeug. So zählt Japan Hunderte von sehr unterschiedlichen «Öfen», die oft geografisch dicht nebeneinander liegen. Wobei mit «Ofen» nach japanischem Sprachgebrauch ebenso ein einzelnes Atelier wie ein Keramik-Gebiet mit bis zu tausend Werkstätten bezeichnet werden kann. Japan ist reich an Tonerde. Viele Töpfer graben den Ton oder zumindest Components of the mixture used even himself. In sound quality they put great weight, not least because of the intended sound image of the vessel.
ceramics occupies in the Japanese daily a significant role. In addition to the use of ceramics for daily use - often inexpensive, but attractive commodity, such as one finds them in the restaurants of the island kingdom in the widest variety - there are the exquisite and sometimes very expensive ceramics of the studio pottery for the tea ceremony, for ikebana flower arrangements or for the sake kept drinking. Then be available veritable objets d'art internationally renowned ceramic artists in prestigious galleries.
The most important role is played by the ceramic vessel, their practical value is weighted much higher than in the West, where representative showpieces periods often a life behind glass display cases. So most of ceramics in Japan, even precious, high-priced items, intended for use. And develop the very vast pieces of smaller size show their beauty often first use: quiet work such as bowls and plates, vases and tea cups that reveal the interaction with food, flowers and green tea its charm also in the sense of "form follows function» .
The understanding of "beauty in use" (yo no bi) is also reason why do Japanese wear or repaired with gold lacquer cracks (kintsugi) an object sometimes even more valuable. The patina of wear meets Japanese sense of beauty. To this includes the appreciation of the asymmetric and sometimes Bulky-brittle. In addition, a predilection for the traces of production: The game of chance, which is caused by the unpredictable forces of the fire at the wood-fired kiln is often an important part of the design. Shall apply such approach by ash glazes formed spontaneously as an expression of artful naturalness.
ceramic artist with cult status
the element of nature in the ceramic art for daily use supported, not least with the careful coordination of the dishes on the seasons into account. Sun radiates a dark stoneware tea bowl-shaped in winter for Matcha green tea dignified severity. A sake bottle of fine porcelain with a subtle cherry blossom decor reflects the other hand, the lightness of spring.
Countless ceramic galleries and regularly staged pottery markets, the most famous are visited each of hundreds of thousands of Japanese people, provide a wide bid. Moreover, the department stores offer a large assortment of ceramic. The most famous department stores such as Matsuzakaya, Mitsukoshi and Matsuya also organize temporary exhibitions with specific veritable ceramics and art exhibitions with the most prestigious studio potters in the country. In these shops the way, are the finest manufacturers in the West as represented Herend Meissen or with unusually large range - a fact which confirms the general appreciation of ceramics in Japan only.
A visit to the National Museum in Tokyo also quickly makes clear that is not between art and craft distinction in the West. An important vase tea bowl or enjoy the same status as an ink painting and calligraphy. Famous tea bowls are provided with their own name. This appreciation of ceramic Products is also reflected in the actual ceramic around 560 museums in the country. One of the most recent examples is the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art in Tajimi, built in 2002 by internationally renowned architect Arata Isozaki.
the set into a wooded hillside construction, pour from the glass fronts are mighty cascades over huge stages, houses over 1,300 objects of international modern and contemporary ceramic art. Japanese tea set is presented here in addition to European contemporary ceramic tableware and art objects. It goes without saying that this modern, exclusively dedicated to the ceramics museum in an earthquake country like Japan with a very special Design features: The floors of the exhibition rooms are suspended from the ceiling, and simply decorated cabinets are mounted on wheels so that no tremor harm the fragile treasures.
The view of the applied arts as an artistic secondary phenomenon, whose creations mangle it about the spirit and the depth was long unknown in Japan. Only through the modernization with the Meiji Restoration from the mid-19th Century cultural values standards have been adopted from the West. This has the confidence of the artisans who would be in the Japanese context but actually called a craftsman, but not destroyed. A "living national treasure" as Shoji Hamada (1894-1978), the famous Mingei potter is coming in Japan the same recognition as a master of painting or sculpture. A Fukami Sueharu enjoys today in the Japanese public a status similar to the stars of the international contemporary art.
However, it was just the world's singular institution of the "Living National Treasures" (ningen kokuhô), which after the Second World War ensured the survival of many traditional Japanese arts and crafts. This award was told for certain artists in particular by modernizing the endangered art of ceramics a tremendous kulturpolitische und gesellschaftliche Stärkung. Der Titel des «Lebenden Nationalschatzes» gilt denn auch nicht so sehr einer Person als vielmehr einer schützenswerten Handwerkstradition. Der Ausgezeichnete soll damit verpflichtet werden, das Überdauern bestimmter von ihm beherrschter Techniken durch Pflege und Weitergabe zu gewährleisten.
Die alte Melodie der Teekeramik
Daran wird auch deutlich, dass die moderne japanische Keramikszene nicht etwa ein Refugium althergebrachter Werte darstellt, an dem die Umwälzungen der Moderne spurlos vorübergegangen wären. Die oft archaisch anmutende Teekeramik Japans scheint zwar einer alten Melodie zu folgen und vermag in ihrer stillen Präsenz und to establish depth sometimes a kind of counter to the world loud and fast-paced world of modernity. In this case, but often overlooked, that one is dealing with many forms of contemporary ceramics in some ways with the modern invention of a tradition. Such recourse to supposedly traditional values served in the rapid process of modernization that Japan went through, especially the formation of a national identity. This applies in the case of a return to medieval pottery traditions, which is summarized under the term of the Momoyama-revival, and for the Mingei folk art movement. Both movements were important elements in creating the modern Japanese nation-state.
example, was the "discovery" of Sen no Rikyûs (1522-1591) tea ceremony as a "typical Japanese" art form for the first time created an aesthetic benchmark for something unique, "Private". Today's famous glazes are the Mino ceramics (kiseto, Shino, Oribe and setoguro), who were in the Momoyama period (1573-1603) were closely related to the tea ceremony, as the first independent developments in the Japanese ceramic history. As part of the rediscovery of the Mino-Ware in the thirties of the 20th Century was the first time the concept of a true "tea ceramics" shaped.
This revival and reinvention includes a renewed interest in the medieval ceramic centers of Seto, Tokoname, Shigaraki, Tanba, Echizen and Bizen. By exploring this as a "classic Japanese" and defined under the name of the "six old kilns" combined pottery was accompanied by a renaissance of old Japanese firing techniques. The ceramic products of these kilns are similar in earthy appearance, the traces of the accident, impurities in the clay and crusty ash approach glazes are characteristic, all the aesthetic ideal of simplicity, as described by the ancient tea masters in the concept of "wabi cha" (tea Taste of the Pacific was held up).
On the ideals of the simple, rustic and natural, the great ancestor of the Japanese way of tea in the 16th Century founded the Mingei movement in the first half of the 20th Century, when their father Sôetsu Yanagi (1889-1961) holds. In addition to his confrontation with the British Arts and Crafts Movement Yanagi harbored a great fascination for the imperfect rural pottery of the Korean and Japanese folk art. Through them he came to believe that true beauty is found in the simplicity and spontaneity of anonymous craftsmanship. Yanagi philosophical reflection on the beauty of simple things were because of the development of modern ceramics in Japan, scene hardly to be underestimated.
From:
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